Browse the All Freelance Writing collection of writers’ resources articles below.
Here you’ll find posts covering tools, worksheets, references, platforms, and other resources that can help freelance writers work more efficiently, solve problems faster, and make better business decisions.
Some resources save time. Others help you write better, market smarter, or stay more organized. This category brings those kinds of practical supports together.
When I was contacted about Authory potentially sponsoring a newsletter, I said “no.” I don’t accept sponsors for any of my newsletters. But… I took a look anyway. I was impressed. So I offered to write up a review instead. That’s what you’ll find in this post: one part review, and one part tutorial on how to set up your own Authory account. This post
This might sound strange. But today I want to recommend an audio app — more specifically a sleep audio app — to writers. It’s called BetterSleep (formerly Relax Melodies), from Ipnos Software. And it’s available on both Android and iOS devices. I’ve long struggled with falling asleep, and I’ve used this app for at least 10 years to help with that. The custom sound mixes
We’ve talked about whether or not AI writing tools are coming for your job as a freelance writer. We’ve explored some of the legal and ethical AI concerns you and your clients should be aware of. Now let’s look at some examples of generative AI tools you can test right now for your freelance writing business. But first… What is Generative AI? Generative AI is
‘Tis the season to launch new business ventures, evaluate your freelance career, and make plans to do even better in the New Year. So why not treat yourself to one of the long-time best, and recently updated, books that can help you do just that? I’m talking about Peter Bowerman’s The Well-Fed Writer. Earlier this year, Peter released the third edition of this essential inclusion
This is a review of Find Your Freelance Writing Niches, a course from John Soares of ProductiveWriters.com. As I do in any review, I’ll share an overview with you followed by highlights, suggestions, and my overall verdict. For full disclosure, while this is not an affiliate review, John did provide me with access to the course materials for review. Let’s start by taking a look at how
In the last couple of posts we talked about learning new types of freelance writing projects. And I promised I’d release a few new free downloads this month to help you with that. Today I have three of them for you. Below you’ll find links to download a free press release template, and worksheets to help you outline case studies and white papers. These are
You may be familiar with Peter Bowerman from his Well-Fed Writer book or blog. For years his book has been my top recommended reading material for new freelance writers. So I was thrilled to hear he was launching a new course on freelance commercial writing called Well-Fed Craft. When Peter asked me to review Well-Fed Craft, of course I said “yes.” Is Well-Fed Craft your ticket to a profitable
Every May, Lori Widmer runs Writers Worth Month over on the Words on the Page blog. She features a collection of guest posts, profiles of experienced freelance writers, and her own tips and insight into realizing our worth (and getting paid what we’re worth) as freelance professionals. Each year I take part in this month-long event. This year I submitted a guest post and was profiled, sharing
Today marks the start of my usual year-end vacation, meaning I won’t be around much until the New Year (January 4th in this case). Before taking these yearly breaks I spend a lot of time evaluating my previous year. It’s how I set goals for the next year, but it’s also when I look at the tools and processes I’ve been using to decide what
I’ve always loved the concept of mind mapping, but it’s not something I’ve done regularly. It’s something I’d prefer to use software for rather than one of my white boards but, quite frankly, I found every solution I came across to be ugly. Petty, I know, but if I’ll be looking at an organizational tool a lot, I prefer it to be clean and visually
When I share resources for writers here, they’re usually along the lines of e-books or other downloads. But today I want to recommend something different — a new mouse that’s ideal for those long hours we writers can spend in front of our computers. More specifically, let’s look at vertical mice. I didn’t even know what a vertical mouse was until Anne Wayman mentioned them
If you’ve been following this blog for a while you might have seen some of my free Scrivener templates. Unfortunately those are a bit scattered throughout the blog, and I’ve had a couple of folks this week email me trying to find one of my blogging templates and another reader asked for recommendations about mystery templates without realizing I’d released one here. So I thought
It’s August. Seriously. When did that happen? Normally by now I’ve completed a detailed mid-year evaluation and posted my quarterly check-in on the blog. Whoops! Actually, it was less a simple oversight and more an issue of reorganization. By mid-July, I knew a few things weren’t working out as planned, so I decided to make some changes. The usual mid-year check-in was scrapped. It was a dud
2024 Update: As of June 2024, I cannot in good faith recommend Grammarly’s service to any All Freelance Writing readers. This is a combination of the company’s past unethical and exploitational behavior regarding their affiliate relationships as well as my recent re-exploration of their services through a school-provided premium account while pursuing a Master’s program. Please disregard the outdated information below. It will temporarily remain published
Scrivener is a wonderful tool for writers. You can use it to write a novel or nonfiction book. You can use it to format your writing as an e-book. You can even use Scrivener for blogging. That said, Scrivener can also be a complicated tool to use. I doubt I even know half of what it can do. It’s one of those tools that you
My next Scrivener template is now available for download: a murder mystery novel template. This one is based on my own template that I’ve been using for my upcoming mystery series. It allows you to plan, outline, and draft your next murder mystery all in one project file. Plus, there’s a place to write up some of your promotional copy, like your book launch press
I’ve been meaning to kick off a new, light, post series here for a while — one where I share a bite-sized bit of actionable information, or even something that’s simply entertaining. Most of these posts will be infographics — some which I’ll create and some from third party sources that I found interesting or helpful. Here is the first I wanted to share —
I’ve been working this week on the next Scrivener template in my writers’ resource collection — a mystery novel template. While it won’t be ready for release this week, I want to give you a chance to weigh in. Tell me what you want from a template. What would help you write your next mystery novel? When I was moving the first draft of a mystery novel
Is your goal to finally make a living writing? Whether you’re ready to quit your day job to earn a living as a writer full-time or you’re looking to increase your existing writing income, the opportunities are practically endless. If you aren’t sure where to start, or if you’re worried that there aren’t enough potential writing gigs to go around, consider this. Just about everything
The New Year is a great time to tackle a new writing challenge. So why not start with a 30 day marketing challenge? The goal of this challenge is to do something to market your writing every day for 30 days. That could mean promoting your freelance writing services. It could mean book marketing. Or it might involve marketing your blog. Here’s a free tracker
For this week’s resource for writers, I’ve updated and re-released an oldie but goodie — my HTML cheat sheet for freelance writers and bloggers. The cheat sheet used to come with my now-retired e-book, The Web Writer’s Guide, which was released back in 2008. The new version will be available for free permanently in the All Freelance Writing Resources Collection. This download includes some of the most basic
As writers we frequently rely on the web in our work. We manage our own websites and blogs. We visit others to stay connected with colleagues and stay on top of industry news. We use social media tools in networking and marketing. And sometimes the sheer number of websites we need to visit on a regular basis can get overwhelming. Fortunately there’s a simple trick
For this week’s free resource for writers, I’m giving you an action plan template loosely based on my own action plan format (though mine are usually scribbled out on 5×8″ index cards). Here’s a bit of background on what an action plan is and how you can use this template. What is an Action Plan? We talk a lot about setting and reaching your goals
As a freelance writer do you ever feel like you aren’t working to your full potential — that you could get more work done if you could just eliminate some distractions and improve your productivity a bit? Fortunately there are plenty of time management tools that can help you do that. Today I’d like to share some of my favorite types of time management tools
UPDATE: While the post below will remain archived, please note I no longer recommend NameSilo as a domain registrar. Similar to why I moved to NameSilo in the first place, over a decade ago, as of March 2025 I’m moving all of my domains away from them (and to Porkbun). In the past, NameSilo was known for their fair and transparent pricing practices. They didn’t offer
Yesterday I announced a new Tuesday Quick Tips series for the blog. Today marks the start of another series — Wednesday Resources. Every Wednesday (at least through the test period in June), I’ll either release a new resource for All Freelance Writing readers or I’ll promote a resource I highly recommend. Through June I already have new resources lined up every week though. . That
I mentioned previously that I was having a difficult time finding Scrivener templates for freelance writers. Most are focused on writing books. I already released two free templates that will help you use Scrivener for blogging — one for managing a single blog and one for managing multiple blogs. Today I’m releasing my first template for common freelance writing projects — a white paper template.
Recently I wrote about my decision to move to Scrivener for blogging. I also released a free scrivener template for bloggers that allows you to easily manage a single blog as its own project. But personally, I use Scrivener to manage multiple blogs, and I manage them all from a single project file so I can see all of my blogs’ content in one place.
Recently I shared some of the reasons I now use Scrivener for blogging. In the comments on that post I promised to look into creating a simple template you can use. Today I’d like to share that Scrivener blogging template with you. About the Scrivener Blogging Template This simple template was designed to be used in managing your content strategy for a single blog. The
A while back I mentioned that I was giving Scrivener a try. My hope was to use that writing software during last year’s NaNoWriMo instead of a standard word processor. That didn’t happen. I was still uncomfortable with the software at the time, and I worried it would slow me down. I’m still a Scrivener beginner by a long shot, but I’m finally putting it